One Night at Dell's
by Graywolf144
Summary: Two friends, a Rogue Isles landmark, and an interesting night.  Enjoy and comments welcome.


_Late night, a bad cold, and seeing Edward Hopper's Nighthawks led to the following. If anyone's not that familiiar with the game the Zig is _Ziggursky Penitentiary where all the Rogue characters escape from.  
><em>___Enjoy and of course comments are welcome.__

People have the wrong idea about the Rogue Isles.

They assume everyone here is a thug, killer, or maniac who wants to conquer or destroy the world. The truth is we're a place like anywhere else. We do have more supers than any place outside of Paragon City but we also have teachers, doctors, scientists; some of which aren't mad, lawyers, cops, and families.

You do have to be cautious in the Isles because a lot of the time things aren't what they appear. For example, across the street right now there's a punk with a gun forcing that blonde woman towards an alley. I can see her pleading with him but he just shoved her into the alley. In Paragon a hero would have to swoop in and save her but its different here. You see the blonde is named Sara Downey but around here, when she's in uniform; she goes by the name Sundown.

She got the name back when she was robbing banks and killing soldiers in Texas after the war. The civil war. Sherman's troops killed her family back in Georgia and she didn't take it to well. The Yankees called her a monster, but one night in a border town she caught the attention of a real monster who said she had sunshine for hair and then killed her. The monster died in a Rikti attack about a year ago but Sara keeps going.

I see her exit the alley and I half wave. She sees, crosses the street, and enters the diner. Dells Diner has been here for a long time. Back in the day Dell had been part of a student group that didn't like the government. Only when they bombed a factory in protest one weekend, three people died. Dell came to the Isles and she's been running this place for the last thirty years or so. Sara sits down and I hand her a napkin; she's got a little blood on the side of her mouth.

"How was dinner?" She smiles showing the tips of her fangs and drawls, "Nasty." All this time and she still has the Georgia accent she grew up with. "He was on something darn it, because his blood was terrible. Now I'm going to have to go out later and see if I can find someone else for supper." Sara doesn't believe in profanity but she does believe that stupid should hurt; especially when it comes to men who hurt women. When she's not working she likes to walk around in her civilian clothes waiting for some moron to try and attack her.

Someone must have been listening because an idiot with a shotgun just walked in to rob the place. He's still in prison orange so he probably just got off the chopper from the Zig. There's not the huge break out they had at first; the one that brought me and Sara to the Rogue Isles. But every four to six months, when they find enough potential destined ones, they raid the prison to free them.

Dell tries to tell him what's what but he's twitchy and not listening. I look at Sara but she gestures to me so I stand up to talk to him. He swings the shotgun towards me and his stupid grin gets bigger. I'm wearing my brown bomber jacket, my good jeans, a ball cap, and a t-shirt. That's another thing about the Isles this shotgun idiot must not realize; we don't run around in our uniforms all the time. I've even seen Lord Recluse in a Kiton suit; it was black of course.

He must not think I'm a threat because he's at least a foot taller than me and it looks like even his muscles have muscles. "Look you must be new here so let me explain. On the door coming in did you see that red and black Arachnos symbol? That means this place is protected. Protected as in they track you down and kill you; if you're lucky." But shotgun idiot just laughs and says after he gets his money we're going to party. He starts going into nauseating detail but I ignore it. I don't bother pointing out that one; he's disgusting, two; I don't do men, and three he's pissing me off.

I think my sigh made him mad because he began to raise the shotgun. The first strike from my flame whip cut it in half. The second strike cocooned around him and held him in place. I looked over at Sara, "I have plans tonight, you want him?" Sara looked at me and grinned. "Thanks Dana, I like takeout." She stood up and murmured the incantation I had taught her and now she was in uniform. The black leathers looking good against her ghost white or rather vampire white skin, her fangs coming out and her eyes turning solid red. Some people don't look good with capes but her black one with crimson lining really worked for Sara. S I kept struggling and when he saw her he began to scream. I commanded my whip and it quickly looped over his mouth shutting him up. Dell spoke up, "MageForce, Sundown, not in here." I looked over at her, "I don't want to have to clean up the mess." She had a point so I concentrated and summoned one of my demons. Sara grinned, Dell looked bored, and S I looked like he wet himself.

I told Infernus to do whatever Sara said then gave him the whip. He picked up her dinner and started following her. Sara stopped at the door and turned back, "I've got a bank job planned for later tonight. Can I use your demon?" I waved, "go ahead; just have him back by dawn." She nodded and headed out.

I sat down and finished eating my meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Dell makes really amazing meatloaf.


End file.
